Kevin's Watch

I can't understand something. In the Second Chrons, Vain gets the heels of the staff of law from Revelstone, and puts them on his wrist and ankle. At this point I'm putting 2 and 2 together and guessing, hey Vain might be the new staff of law. Then, at the One tree, one arm turns to wood (the arm with the heel). Now I'm sure that Vain will be the new staff. Why can't Covenant or Linden make this assuption, or even think of it as a possibility.

It would spoil the story? I had a vague idea but i remember never knowing for sure.

It did not occur to me at all...until me aunty told me.

But anyhow, maybe they had other things to think of, I mean, alot of the time Vain just faded into the background.

i assumed that vain would have something to do with the staff of law but was not sure since everytime i tried to guess what would happen next donaldson would pull something unexpected. i've pretty much given up on trying to figure out any future plots or the way the story will go, donaldson is just to unpredictable for me(which is why i love his books).

We (the readers) are fans of fantasy stories, so the thoughts that Vain might have something to do with a new SoL isn't far-fetched. Covenant and Linden, on the other hand? The idea would never enter their minds.

It never occurred to me. Whenever Vain did anything, I just wondered "What the hell is that lunatic up to now?!" and spectacularly failed to pick up on the hints. So I don't think it's too far-fetched that Covenant and Linden didn't realise either.

I know A few people who had no idea about Vain but I don't no how- as soon as he put the bands on I knew he was going to be the staff of law- I even thoght there was a good chance that that was one of the possibilites before that happened.

Hey, Scooby, you're pretty intuitive. I did NOT put 2 + 2 together and figure out Vain's purpose with the heels of the SOL. My assumption was that he, up to this point, had proven himself pretty hard to kill/destroy/stop, whatever, so he had put on the heels to safeguard them until they fulfilled their pre-determined purpose, for which he had been solely created. I, too, was surpised by the real reason, but it was one of the many "wow" moments I felt while reading TCoTC books, and every time I re-read them. I'm anxiously (and somewhat impatiently) awaiting FR's release so I can "wow" some more.

Vain is the best character ever created in a fantasy novel. So he gets a bit of kudos for being mysterious and elusive.

But in hindsight it does seem rather bleeding obvious...